Women in Big Data

A great group of (mostly) computer scientists welcomed me with open arms last week for a conference on women in big data in Zurich. I met an interdisciplinary group of fellow UZH scholars Carolin Strobl (Psychology), Anne Scherer (Marketing), and Sarah Petchey (Natural Science) as well as many new faces from ETH, Europe, and beyond! I learned a lot about Artifical Intelligence (AI), algorithms, and machine learning from some of the programmers themselves; we also discussed some of the ethical and policy implications for fairness, gender equality, and more!

I left with new knowledge, ideas, contacts, and even some bling! Below is an absolutely appropriate button for the event given to me by Caitlin Kraft-Buchmann, founder and CEO of Women at the Table, who gave an inspiring, evidence-informed keynote on Affirmative Action for Algorithms.

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I also gave a 90-second madness talk (in true “science slam” form: it all rhymed!) highlighting my interests in AI in hiring from the employee perspective, including key examples from practice such as Amazon and Unilever, touching on some work by my University of Basel colleague, Gwendolin Sajons (Business).

Here’s more information if you’re interested in the full program and/or the Twitter moment (including images from the event).